1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for writing data to a tape medium. In particular, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for writing data to a tape medium using a write head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Tape media such as a magnetic tape can record a large amount of data with a relatively low cost. On the other hand, the tape media have been often used for long-term storage of data written to a hard disk or the like because of lower read/write speeds than that of the hard disk or the like.
In recent years, such a tape medium has been improved of recording density. As a result, a larger amount of data can be recorded to the tape medium.
To improve the recording density, data recorded to the tape medium might be overwritten with new data (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-67601, for example). The technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-67601 references a table showing correlations between model names of tapes and recording densities to determine whether data can be overwritten to realize preset recording density and determine a recording frequency, tape transport speed, and write current that enable an overwriting operation, and if determining that data can be overwritten, sets appropriate recording frequency, tape transport speed, and write current to perform the overwriting operation.